Okay, technically the parade is in Fremont, but a lot of people don’t know where Fremont is, so I put Seattle in the subject. Fremont is adjacent to Seattle.
The Fremont solstice parade is June 18th. There is a long-standing tradition of bicyclists ‘crashing’ the parade route just before the parade starts. The cyclists are…, umm, well, their ‘outfits’, that is, I mean, it’s not so much the bicycling that is unusual it’s the… you see the paint…
Look, they’re naked. Except for body paint. Depending on your viewpoint this is either a once-in-a-lifetime chance to express your creativity and do the most amazing and outrageous thing ever, or it’s a stupid idea.
If you are in the former camp, if unicycling in just body paint is on your bucket list, then join us. There are currently three unicyclists planning to get painted as basketball players and ride around doing a bit of dribbling and passing. Groups with a theme always look better than single riders, so the more the better.
So we giggled our heads off tonight reading this post of the wild traditions for the solstice parade up north. We have a new unicycle group that we’re kicking off in Olympia on Friday June 17th at LBA Park from 6-8pm. You wouldn’t catch my crew in paint on a uni, but perhaps there are a few more daring folks that may show up that you might recruit for your endeavors. good luck!
I’ll be there, and my son has expressed interest. Do we have a plan in terms of what the “uniforms” should look like? I’ve never done a full body painting so don’t know how difficult it is. If we need to make up some stencils for the logo, etc. it would be nice to know ahead of time. Are we buying our own paints or using the ones that will be at the painting party? What size of uni should we use, trials and/or freestyle seem the most managable although small wheels in a parade get tiresome.
I know, a lot of questions. I’m just a newbie so would rather not go in blind.
We have a plan for what team we will be painted as. I’ll add you to the discussion. Depending on the design body painting can be trivial or can require tremendous skill – I hope our design is simple, because I lack tremendous painting skill. I think it is.
We should be able to get paint at the painting party, for a modest donation.
A small wheel is better, for control, especially when dribbling a basketball. I’ll be riding a 20". Parades always move unbelievably slowly, so even on a 20" I’ll be circling back a lot.
Seat comfort shouldn’t be an issue. It’s just like unicycling without padded shorts. Well, except that you might want to disinfect your seat before and after
We ended up with five unicyclists riding ahead of the Fremont Solstice parade, painted as the Seattle Storm – the local WNBA team. Apparently WNBA stands for Women’s Naked Basketball Association. Who knew?
Meanwhile there were two women on bicycles painted as the Seattle Sonics, the no-longer-in-town NBA team.
The unicyclists clearly won as we were able to dribble and pass as we rode the parade route, and the bicyclists could merely wave.
It was amusing that all seven painted basketball players were effectively cross-dressing.
Unfortunately my lack of basketball skills combined with heavy rain and prior family obligations did not allow me to participate. In other words, I chickened out. The paint job looked really good, nice work!
The paint job looked really good, nice work!